In this particular game? She's mainly missing screen time. Dunno, I don't recall finding her personality itself particularly deficient. Maybe I just filled in whatever was missing with, say, my sister's personality (she was about 14 when I played TSS). It's nice that the remake gave Luna more time to show her personality, but I always got the feeling that whatever introspection and character development shown in that version had simply already occurred in Luna before TSS's story began, so she was already pretty comfortable with who she was, and her relationships with the people around her. Hence why she could make the decision that with Alex off on an adventure, it was more important for her to be with his parents than with him -- she could trust him to take care of himself off on his own, just as he could trust her to keep things together at home. (It may also fit in better with the idea of the goddess as nurturer rather than adventurer; Althena mostly stays in her tower and lets the dragonmaster do the footwork.)

Games like this are frequently about individual growth of feckless youths, but they don't have to be, and this game being the first one I played it didn't bother me at all that Luna and Alex were already more or less grown up. Probably made it easier for me to relate to them; I have limited patience with the self-absorbed uncertainty shown on the boat, or with her constant screams for Alex to save her when she was taken into custody in Vane. Nor does she need to hear Alex playing music to take the initiative to free at least one of the captured girls (the one who gives Alex the key to Ruid). When I think about it, Luna's maturity and self-sufficience was rather dialed back in the remake.

Can anyone remind me if in TSS the Festival was supposed to have occurred while Alex was away? I know it does in SSSC because everyone misses him and Luna, but if it did in TSS then presumably Luna would have performed solo.

Heh, wow, you surely love Lunar. Yeah, I guess you're right; I just didn't realize what her personality was supposed to be.

I have limited resources of such things, not being able to read Japanese or really afford all of those wonderful books that say those kinds of things. I do have the Lunar I & II Artbook, but alas, I cannot read Japanese. I just love the artwork, even though I'm not a fan of anime. It's so colorful and unique. Luna is actually one of my favorites.

Well, to be honest, I don't know that I can say what her personality is supposed to be, just what I see it as. ^_^ I don't actually read Japanese myself, so although I have all these nice source books and such I'm totally dependent on what other people tell me they say, and I don't think there's been too much discussion of any Japanese comment on Luna's personality just yet.

I'm glad you asked the question; I hadn't really thought that much about how Luna's character was different in the original until today, and how that difference is shown even with so little screen time. But again I could be filling in more than someone else would.

I think Luna is good in TSS, but the rest of the time I think they portray Luna badly. They seemed to try too hard to make her into something, when the thing that made her special was her grace and serenity. Her presence did the talking....I mean she is a goddess and everything.

I think that presence is also what makes it so dramatic when "goth" Luna makes an appearance, there's a greater "depth" that can be had compared to if she were to be more full of personality.

There's something about Luna's decision to quit the adventure in TSS that never made sense to me. It seems so unambitious, so unadventurous. Her motivation never made much sense to me. "I underestimated you, you're a man now, so I'm going to go home and wait for you?"

Geez, Lunar... I can deal with casual sexism, but this is pushing it. At least in the remake her man talks her out of it.

I dunno... I think the way it was presented I didn't mind it, or don't mind it much now. If she'd stuck with quitting in SSSC, after all her mopey talk about it, I would've been more disappointed. But she doesn't have to have the same adventurous interests as Alex, just as Alex's father didn't have to go with Dyne.

I need to reread the TSS text, I guess, but I don't recall her saying much about how Alex is more grown-up than she thought and ready for a solo adventure, etc in that game. Just that she's decided to return to Burg, and then her voiced farewell, which goes something like this: "I never dreamed we'd say goodbye like this... Oh, Alex, you have to come back to me. I'll pray constantly for your safe return. Goodbye, my love." I think there's another line about how vast the world seems, too. But no comment about doubt or even worry, much. Again, maybe I'm just filling in a perception of character from the relative lack of text, but I read this as confidence in him as well as security in what she wants to do -- she had her taste of adventure and decided that that was enough.

Of course, if she'd had to help fight the Saline Slimer in that game and seen how dangerous things really were, she might have felt differently. The Weird Woods were also not nearly as threatening; no waves of goblins to fight off (and no nagging by her about Alex needing to practice his sword skills if Laike helps them fight.)